The last batch of Grange Farm cider is safely racked off under the nose of the new owner.

Radio Times: Caroline is a good sport.

Characters: Caroline, Eddie, Elizabeth, Joe, Nigel, Oliver

• Eddie isn’t daft, he knows there isn’t a shortage of holly this year; there is a phantom holly thief about. Even though he wants to get on with the cider this evening, a trip to Hayden Berrow to look for holly with berries is first on the agenda. Rather later than planned, he and Joe load up the old stone jars and the bottles for the night’s operation.
• Meanwhile Caroline receives an invitation from Oliver Stirling to see what the builders have done today. It seems that Grange Farm is going to be crowded this evening!
• Edward is acting as lookout, using a mobile phone to raise the alarm, and of course he cannot resist raising a false one early on. Joe doesn’t quite have a heart attack but recovers to announce to Eddie that Jolene has asked him to be Father Christmas at the Bull on Christmas Day. The whole family get a free Christmas lunch in return; he reckons Clarrie will be pleased.
• Hiding the van behind a tree Eddie notices that Clarrie’s bathroom suite, her pride and joy, has been ripped out and dumped in the skip. The cider is nearly done when a phone call heralds the arrival of a big 4×4: Stirling is on his way.
• Perhaps his concentration is elsewhere but Oliver does not notice the Grundys, even when showing Caroline something in the barn. Caroline does, but Caroline is discreet. What Eddie and Joe overhear of their conversation does nothing to endear Stirling to them.
• So when they repair to the Bull for Shires and brandy to warm up their frozen extremities, they are not inclined to accept Oliver’s offer to buy them the drinks. A quiet word with Caroline confirms that she will say nothing if the Grundys don’t; the less she knows the better.
• At Lower Loxley, Elizabeth should know better than climb a ladder to put up decorations but she is headstrong, that one. When Nigel takes over the task, she explains that she has just had a long phone call with Dad. She admits to knowing little about farming but she does know about business and the same principles apply. She must ring Kenton: she thinks that her father is finally beginning to listen to her.